An intelligent person in everyday speech can be called both "intellectual" and "erudite". It seems that erudition and intelligence are synonymous. Meanwhile, these concepts differ in meaning.
The concept of intelligence is closest to the concept of thinking. If thinking is the very process of processing information by the brain, then intellect is the ability for such thinking work. Speaking about the level of intelligence of a person, they mean the development of his thinking.
The concept of erudition characterizes the level and breadth of a person's knowledge, the set of information that he was able to assimilate during his life.
If we compare the human psyche with a computer, erudition can be likened to files containing information, and intelligence - to the operating system. The presence of one does not always imply the other. For example, a street child who does not even have basic knowledge from the school curriculum can demonstrate fantastic intellectual abilities by inventing ways to steal.
What's more important
The charm of erudition is so great that even great scientists cannot always avoid it. The famous inventor Thomas Edison offered people who wanted to work for him a special test, compiled by him. To pass the test, one had to have a very broad erudition, because it included questions from the field of geography ("Where the Volga River flows"), physics ("Who discovered X-rays"), history ("Who is Leonid") and even literature (" How the Aeneid begins). Only 35% of applicants coped with the task and got a job.
A person with such broad knowledge is called a "walking library." The comparison is very accurate, because in the library books are on the shelf and waiting for someone to read them. Until that moment, everything that is written in them remains a "dead weight". Information in the memory of an erudite who is not distinguished by high intelligence is in the same position.
The ratio of intelligence and erudition
In order for it to function, thinking needs information that can be mastered and processed, therefore the intellect is always “hungry” - it is always looking for new knowledge. The development of intelligence leads to an increase in the level of erudition.
Erudition, on the other hand, based on passive "mechanical" memorization of facts, can do without a developed intellect, so it does not stimulate its development.
This must be remembered by parents who seek to "lay" in the child as much information as possible. While the child is small, his "encyclopedic knowledge" will allow him to brag to his acquaintances, but in the future it will not help either in school or in life.
It is necessary to give the child knowledge, but the replenishment of the information baggage should be accompanied by games and activities aimed at developing thinking. A person with a developed intellect will expand and deepen erudition on their own.
